Method of Automatically Managing Associations Between Services in a Distributed Environment

• US 20080201723A1
• Filed: 10/04/2006
• Published: 08/21/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/11/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Orange S.A.
• Original Assignee: Orange S.A.
• Inventors: Gerodolle, Anne, Bottaro, André, Olive, Vincent
• Application Number:
  US12/089,909
• Publication Number:
  US 20080201723A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/316
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5005 to service a request
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2809 indicating that an appliance service is present in a home automation network monitoring functionality H04L43/0817; discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services, H04L67/51
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

The invention relates to a method of automatically managing associations in a distributed environment between components requesting services and components providing services, comprising the following steps: dynamically discovering required services by means of a distributed service discovery protocol, advertising services provided by means of a distributed service discovery protocol, and producing a connection between a component requesting services and a component providing services. According to the invention, for at least one of said components, said requested services and/or said provided services are declared in a declaration file associated with the component that is analyzed when starting that component on a platform forming part of the distributed environment. Application to home automation networks and small office automation networks.

Claims

1. A method of automatically managing associations in a distributed environment between components requesting services and components providing services, the method comprising the following steps:

dynamically discovering required services by means of a distributed service discovery protocol;

using a distributed service discovery protocol to advertise provided services; and

producing a connection between a component requesting services and a component providing services;

characterized in that, for each component being integrated in a local platform (A, B, C) forming part of a distributed environment;

at least one of said components is associated with a declaration file in which said requested services and/or said provided services are declared; and

when said at least one component is started, the declaration file is analyzed on the platform (A, B, C) in which the component is integrated.

2. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that it further comprises a step of eliminating a connection between a component requesting a service and a component that previously provided the service if the component that previously provided the service is no longer in a position to provide the service.

3. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that, for at least one service requester/service provider pair, said connection is effected by means of a telecommunications protocol.

4. A method according to claim 3, characterized in that said telecommunications protocol is chosen from the RMI, SOAP, and CORBA/IIOP protocols.

5. A method according to claim 3, characterized in that a component using a telecommunications protocol is installed by downloading it automatically as a function of predetermined events.

6. A method according to claim 3, characterized in that a component using a distributed service discovery protocol is installed by downloading it automatically as a function of predetermined events.

7. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that, for at least one service requester/service provider pair hosted by the same platform (A, B, C), said connection is provided by means of a local call.

8. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that said service declaration is effected in XML syntax.

9. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that said a distributed service discovery protocol is chosen from the SLP, Jini, UDDI, UPnP/SSDP, CORBA, and WS-SD protocols.

14. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that, after said declaration file has been analyzed on the platform (A, B, C), there is provided, for at least one required service declared in said file, a step of dynamically maintaining knowledge of provider components that are available and, where appropriate, a step of connecting said component under consideration to an available provider component in order to provide said required service.

15. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that, after said declaration file has been analyzed within the platform (A, B, C), there is provided, for at least one provided service declared in said file, a step of advertising said provided service on the distributed environment.

10. A core computer program comprising program code instructions for interpreting declaration files of services requested by a service requester component and declaration files of services provided by a service provider component in a distributed environment and for choosing from the protocols available a communications protocol compatible with said service requester component and said service provider component when said core program is executed by a computer.

11. An implementation computer program adapted to be called by a core program according to claim 10, comprising program code instructions for implementing a distributed service discovery protocol and/or a telecommunications protocol when said implementation program is executed by a computer.

12. A declaration file in which services requested and/or services provided by a component associated with said file are declared, characterized in that it is adapted to be analyzed by a manager object during the starting of said component on a platform (A, B, C) forming part of a distributed environment.

13. A platform forming part of a distributed environment;

comprising;

a component associated with a declaration file in which services requested and/or services provided by the component are declared; and

a manager object adapted to analyze said declaration file on starting of the component concerned on said platform.